Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures, Workbench

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Jean Grey Proxy

I am back after a seven month battle with my pancreas that saw two hospitalizations, a major surgery, and an inability to eat food due to the cessation of my digestive tract. The surgery was undertaken to fix that issue, and I am happily able to eat now! I apologize for the absence, although my pancreas has informed me that it will happen again.

With that out of the way, though, let’s look at some minis! I love the X-Men, and, while I was a fan of the Jim Lee costumes that debuted 33 years ago, I don’t think they’re the end-all, especially when it comes to the original five students of Charles Xavier. Jean’s costume in particular never really gelled for me.

When the Krakoa storyline started a few years ago, I was really happy to see Jean’s first non-school uniform show up again, and spent some time looking for a suitable proxy model to use.

Before anyone rattle a pitchfork too mightily in my direction, I have a staunch take on proxy use! I always strive to own the original model, since I am playing a game that someone spent a lot of time and resources on, I want to support that. I also make sure that my opponent is cool with me using a proxy before we play. This allows cool battles like X-Men VS X-Men, with an obvious time travel element thrown in because of the costume variations!

I found this file of Jean in her Hickman era costume, and here’s how she looks painted up!

While I’m not 100% sold on the pose, I think the sculpt is actually pretty good!

I really do hope that Atomic Mass Games are able to branch out and explore more costume designs in future minis, because there’s a vast and wondrous world of X-Threads beyond Jim Lee, but let’s face it; those costumes were iconic, immortalized in the ’90s cartoon, and nostalgia sells war dollies better than any other marketing tool!

Another proxy is coming next!

Miniatures, skirmish games, Star Wars Shatterpoint

Star Wars: Shatterpoint- Devaronian Bounty Hunter

My willpower is legendary. As in “I have no willpower and there are legends about it”. I took one look at the Fistful of Credits squad pack from Atomic Mass Games, and suddenly my wallet was lighter and there were four more miniatures in my house. Oops.

You would think Cad Bane would be the first miniature I would paint in this set, but I actually went crazy for the Devaronian Bounty Hunter! Sure, he’s just space trailer park trash, but he’s my kind of space trailer park trash…

The model is really dynamic, AMG is really coming into their own with the sculpts the are putting on models now. He’s cocky, smirking, and you just know he named those pistols!

More from Star Wars: Shatterpoint next week!

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures

MCP: Captain America (Earth’s Mightiest Box Set Edition)

This was the first mini I popped out of the Earth’s Mightiest Box Set from Marvel Crisis Protocol, and I managed to get him painted up in less than 24 hours, so I’ll be crossing off another box on my hobby bingo card today…

I really, unabashedly love what Captain America stands for, even if that sometimes doesn’t pair up with what the country is actually doing at the moment. I’m trying to look past the nationalism and at the actual symbolism of what the character can stand for: Our better angels, doing what is right for everyone. Protecting everyone, not just the people that like you. Not being distracted or divided. That’s kinda cool, even if I don’t see that much of anywhere anymore.

The sculpt on the figure is really good, probably the second best Cap model in the line. Definitely the best Steve Rogers Cap. I’ll be posting the best Cap sculpt when a certain movie comes out next month!

Let’s take a look at that bingo card!

10mm miniatures, Miniatures

10mm Fantasy: Vampire Counts Skeleton Command Rank

New week, new strip of 10mm skellies! This will be the command rank for the skeleton unit, They’re a fun little collection of boney bois!

I’m still working out in my heart if I like 10mm or 15mm more, but honestly, half the fun is painting up the different units in different scales and figuring it out. This is a riddle that may never actually find an answer!

With the original strip of infantry, this makes four ranks of six warriors done, and they look so freaking cool ranked up together!

I’m also having a lot of fun taking pictures of models with finished terrain, it makes a cool looking project even cooler!

10mm miniatures, Miniatures

10mm Fantasy: Vampire Counts Skeleton Unit

Apparently, the holidays broke my damned brain. That’s the only reason I can figure that I would have broken down and tried to paint God’s Forbidden Scale again… I swore I would never touch 10mm again, and yet, here I am, brush in hand and ridiculous grin plastered on my stupid face, painting incredibly tiny skeletons.

And, truth be told, I had a better time of it this time around. The trick to tricking my brain into not shutting down this time was painting with the suggestion of color instead of actually painting the models. The details are so small that you’ll just lose your hair if you approach these like a 28mm model.

But, wow. The finished result is actually pretty spiffy. I love the look of two ranks of boney bois, just shambling up for a scrap! I had so much fun with these that I’m already working on a command unit for these troops, and a commander model for the army!

And, just for fun, here’s a picture with a US penny for scale!

Miniatures, Moonstone

Moonstone: Boulder the Troll

Here’s my first Moonstone miniature for 2025, and he’s one of my favorites! (They’re all my favorite, who am I kidding?) Boulder the Troll borrows a lot from Ludo the rockfriend from Labyrinth, but Ludo’s cool as hell, so I’m not faulting Goblin King Games for paying homage to such a great character!

In game, Boulder can summon rocks, which sounds pretty familiar. He also has a cool trick that lets him sing to Moonstones and bring them higher up out of the ground, effectively reducing the amount of time characters have to spend digging them up!

I went with a couple of oil washes on this figure, with a little Payne’s Grey on the cool colors, and a burnt umber wash on the skin tones. This toned down the greens pretty well, and really helps the figure stand out on my display shelf!

Boulder can be played with a goblin crew, I’ll have to post a shot of some of them together with their big friend!

Miniatures, skirmish games

Fantasy Skirmish: Dwarf Heavy Infantry

The goal throughout 2025, for my fantasy skirmish miniatures, at least, is to get my dwarf army finished up and ready for multiple different games, especially Kings of War, Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and Oathmark, and to have cool individual models that would work well as NPCs or skirmishers for smaller games like Mordheim, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and Frostgrave.

These Heavy Dwarf Infantry models from Northstar Miniature’s Oathmark range are fantastic, they capture the classic feel of fantasy dwarfs without breaking the bank. There’s a lot of detail in these models, and considering you can get 30 of these duders for less than $40 US, you really start to wonder why people are spending so much money on monopose models from the industry powerhouse.

I also took the time to touch up a medium infantry archer, who will probably be a leader of a skirmish unit, as I want to use light infantry for the dwarf archer regiments that I’m building.

I’m also trying to spend my hobby money on smaller companies’ products, since the gaming ecosphere has been pretty much consumed by one company. Don’t get me wrong, I love that company’s products, but they’ll be fine if I spend less with them and help support these smaller games!

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures

MCP: The Juggernaut

I am blaming my friend Randon for this. I just fell helplessly back in love with Marvel Crisis Protocol. It’s not entirely his fault, the models are incredible, fun to paint, and really easy to collect… but I’m blaming him, primarily because he’s a fun guy to pal around with, but he’s also an incredible painter, which can get the inspiration juices flowing pretty easily!

The first model off the workbench is Cain Marko, half-brother of Charles Xavier and the wielder of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak… but you probably know him as the Juggernaut!

This model is incredible! He’s so dynamic, and the base alone conveys the brutal stompiness of the character in such a huge way! I also love that Cain just grabbed a stoplight to hit someone with on his way to the fight!

Juggernaut is one of those characters that I’ve loved since I was a kid. He’s a bad guy most of the time, but he seems to have some redeemable qualities. There was a run in the early 2000’s when he was a member of the X-Men that I loved, especially his friendship with Sammy the Squidboy. Good stuff, and it still hits me like a ton of bricks 20 years later!

There’s a bunch more MCP on the way, but Juggernaut is a great way to kick off this year’s projects! He also lets me check off a hobby bingo square, since he’s been sitting partially finished on a shelf for almost two years! Woohoo!

Miniatures, Warhammer 40,000

Let’s Throw That Color Scheme OUT THE WINDOW

When the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000 came out, I fell into a trap that I tend to set for myself. I jumped head first into a horde army, knowing full well that my sensibilities are far more skirmish game sized.

I painted up a Carnifex to test a color scheme I had percolating in my head for Tyranids, and it’s pretty neat, right?

Thanks. I loved it. And then, 25 minis into that scheme, started to hate it. Loathe, even. The type of loathing that I tend to reserve for B Movie villains and bad barristas.

I moved on to another color scheme, and while it was spiffy to look at, I was faced with the same problem. Painting the same color scheme, over and over and over and over and over a hundred times is no longer something I have any patience for!

Slowly, something began to dawn on me. Why on earth was I painting a horde of space bugs a uniform color scheme? How about if the colors the bugs end up has more to do with what biomass they consumed than some Grand Color Scheme from the stars?

So, here we are, with my new, easy to follow and replicate color scheme for Tyranids. Yes, it’s ALL THE COLORS. And I think I love it, hahaha!

More to come as this project comes along!